Have you done this? Any useful advice? Things not to do?
You've got to be damn good at coming up with things on the fly to keep your PCs interested. It will quickly break down otherwise.
Also only attempt this if you have a small group, otherwise they'll go of everywhich way.
Also whilst this initally seems like a good idea, it can get very boring very quickly without some major direction for the PCs.
It can also be very hard on the GM aswell as any GM attempting this will have to meet the PCs expectations of what THEY want rather than what the GM wants for them.
Sorry if I sound a bit negative, but I tried this before and it became very tedious and boring over time as each PC wanted to do their own thing. It led to the dissolution of the group in the end (which in the long term proved a good thing for me). I'd rather tell you straight up then let you tumble around in the dark with no idea of what to expect.
EDIT: I also meant to say that this CAN be fun for few sessions or two or for one-off adventures.
you'll need lots of GM lists. (these can be %chance listings)
lists for random treasure (each having its own appropriate description)
lists for random encounter (each having its own appropriate description)
lists of random npcs (each having its own appropriate description)
lots of maps of many different types of places
( 1/2 of a 3x5 card works well for quick descriptions )
thats for the "common" stuff
now for the "rare" or special stuff
each has its own description, location map, encounter data, etc.
these are GM placed (pre-determined or time-lined set)
Sorry if I sound a bit negative, but I tried this before and it became very tedious and boring over time as each PC wanted to do their own thing. It led to the dissolution of the group in the end (which in the long term proved a good thing for me). I'd rather tell you straight up then let you tumble around in the dark with no idea of what to expect.
No genuine experience is negative to me. Thanks for the warning. I've thought about that possibility too. We are an experienced group of players who have been together for 18 months. Most of use have played RPGs for at least 12 years (up to 28 for me). I'm 90% shure they will embrace the survival plot, help anyone who askes and will immediatly try to discover why, what and who caused the apocalypse. If its fixable they will set into gear to right the wrong. Its a sanbox with story driven players. I guess I can just revert to scripted adventures if they get «lost»...LOL
@rustam1 : Yes... lists are good. I'm starting the campaign in a jazz bar on Bourbon street. Using real locations will save me alote of time. I'll concentrate more on power groups and iconic individual who try to help or twart the players plans if they clash/match with theirs.
...I just prep a few "key scenes" then let gameplay play out how, when, and where they finally encounter them.
I'll try that. Makes sens and its less work too. With a SAGA and DD game going on I have to cut down on the prep time.
My suggestion is to have the illusion of a genuine sandbox game. Create a couple plotlines that will work just about anyway, and have a dozen lead-ins for each one. Wherever the PCs go, that's where the plot happens to be unfolding. If they ignore it and go somewhere else, move the plot and introduce it in a different way. If they still ignore it then move on to Plot B and continue.
If you try to have unique plots for every possible area they might go, you will become frustrated when they ignore areas you spent countless hours on, they will become frustrated if the hooks in that area aren't interesting, and after they level up a couple times, all those other encounters you planned out will have to be redone to still be interesting/level appropriate.
try to have your plots integrated to some degree, interacting or dependant or related.
Its a world, and each plot arc is in that world and has to deal with that world.
Bosses should at the minimum know about the other bosses, turfs have to be recognised (even a turfwar admits there is a boundery that is in flux). How does one group feel towards the other groups, what deals and partnerships are there.... what old fueds are there. When you hurt one plot arc you likely are hurting or helkping diferent plot arcs without even knowing it, but those other plots will know and should act accordingly.
Action : Reaction, Cause : Effect
It may be all up to the players, but what they do can change and involve far more reach than they expect.
Why are the GasLords sending goons after the party?
Maybe the party shouldnt have killed the GL allies... and just who is moving in on the dead guys area of control?
Sure, let the party do what they want,
but Actions have Reactions, they cant complain about the Effects they Cause.
Even mooks they kill have friends & family that want revenge.... why would the pcs think they didnt?
...My suggestion is to have the illusion of a genuine sandbox game. Create a couple plotlines that will work just about anyway, and have a dozen lead-ins for each one. Wherever the PCs go, that's where the plot happens to be unfolding. If they ignore it and go somewhere else, move the plot and introduce it in a different way. If they still ignore it then move on to Plot B and continue...
"Floating plotlines" and "action-reaction" are already part of my "repertoire" as a GM.
So no campaign can be a real sandbox because of the shear amount of work needed and the high risk of boredom...
Illusion of a genuine sandbox it shall be... Mouhahahahaha !
Storm
.True sandbox games are possible in pencil and paper roleplaying games, though.
How do you go about then? Are you being rethorical?
True sandbox games are possible in pencil and paper roleplaying games, though.
How do you go about then? Are you being rethorical?
No, I am not. I can recall at least two campaigns where this worked: one used HERO 5th Edition and the other, New World Of Darkness. There may be more I have forgotten about.
No doubt it will need more propulsion than average (so to speak), but it is doable.
No, I am not. I can recall at least two campaigns where this worked: one used HERO 5th Edition and the other, New World Of Darkness. There may be more I have forgotten about.
No doubt it will need more propulsion than average (so to speak), but it is doable.
Where you the GM?
In my experience, a sandbox game shifts a lot of the work involved with preparing the game into the pre-campaign phase. This is where you put in the most effort and it quickly pays off as you get a good grasp on how the game world is progressing around the PCs and how their actions affect it.
One good trick is to tell the players the physical boundaries of the sandbox: this is where the game is at.
You can populate the world within the boundary to your liking. I'd recommend starting with a map that displays all publicly known features and supplementing these with a description. This would be towns, mountains, rivers. The PCs can look at the map and say: "That looks interesting; let's go there!"
Extend this with a "political" map describing some of the major factions the PCs might have to deal with. Factions are good plot-drivers since they can have influence through-out the campaign world: The PCs may learn of a brotherhood of mutants banding together to raid farms and towns, or mercenaries pursuing some secret agenda on behalf of a wealthy patron.
You can hand the PCs a brief summary of this information. This is useful for giving the PCs a feel of the game world.
You don't have to detail every square meter of the campaign world. After each adventure you should ahve a fair idea of what the players will want to do next session (or have to do in order to advance the plot) and prepare accordingly. This isn't very different from running a regular campaign of episodic adventures, but in a well-prepared sandbox setting you may find that writing these adventures are a lot easier than normal.
You will find it usefull to build a portfolio of placeable locations and encounters: When your players head out in the wilderness you can spring these on them. The purpose of this is to give the players the sense of a fully developed world, yet allow you avoid wasting effort on detailing encounters that never come into play.
This is a kind of cheating that many players balk at: you give the players options, but the result is the same regardless of their choice: In a sense their freedom of choice is just an illusion. Placeable encounters are a useful tool, however, so don't be afraid of using them. After all, it's not like the players can restore a save-game and head east instead of west. You may be playing in a sandbox game where the players get to take all kinds of choices, but in practice the game progresses in a linear fashion. Who'se to say that the your placeable encounters are in the wrong place? 
-DF
Currently I'm working on mixing talent trees from Modern and SAGA with 4E. The sandbox campaign will be about regular people having a drink in a jazz bar in New Orleans when suddenly anything electric or electronic stops working. A sort of Apocalypse if you will. Even guns and chemicals reactions have lost most of their power. As the days go by characters will have to survive with only bows and crow bars!
They will slowly discover that natural laws have shifted. Magic exists. Other people in contact with God, Alah, Boudha, and other deities work miracles... Demons exists, etc.
Cast:
-The doorman - a 5 foot block of muscle. [a barbarian with mostly rogue talents]
-The doctor - a Navaro who pratices white and traditional medicine [a shaman with medic talents]
-The Astronomer - an Afro-american with roots in the bayou who has known for a short while that something is wrong with the universe [a sorcerer with engineering talents]
-The Three Hugger - a white eco-conscious wilderness protection student [Warden with survival talents]
-The Artist - a singer/guitar player [bard with charismatic talents]
[Ragistu: no need to tell I could do all that with Modern only. We've done a Urban Arcana]
.Mixing SAGA, 4e and Modern? I reckon you won't be gunning for game balance in the traditional sense of the word.
Still, a sandbox game is more about preparing a setting in terms of content rather than game mechanics, so I'll stick to offering comments on the former.
-DF
Mixing SAGA, 4e and Modern? I reckon you won't be gunning for game balance in the traditional sense of the word. Still, a sandbox game is more about preparing a setting in terms of content rather than game mechanics, so I'll stick to offering comments on the former.
-DF
4E is extremely balanced. I'll just be using very small selection talent trees (maybe some feats - everything subject to my approval of course - but I wouldn't worry my players prefer RP over min/maxing) from modern and SAGA to give the D&D characters an air of "modernity".
Also if they plan on staying there for a long time it would be a good idea for them to erect defenses, raid a national guard armory or two, make fall back positions and secondary staging points to meet at if they lose the preserve... since you're sandboxing the campaign they could come across some dead guys stash of goods or hints to a small island cache accessible by boat that some guy set up for his family
Edit: Another little thing that just hit me is that certain maintenance of the levies or maybe a gas line erupting from old pipes or unreleashed pressure could lead to small obstacles that need completed before they can go to here/there, uncontrolled fire erupting from some survivor not maintaining his fire well in a looted/destroyed suburb
Storm